May 23, 1849

THE STATE OF THE SKIBBEREEN UNION.

This wretched union still perceveres its melancholy notoriety. According to the Cork Examiner:

"It is nearly 7000l. in debt to merchants for food; and while over 22,000 hungry paupers yearn for bread, which must be provided for them or they perish, there is not the least probability of a rate being collected from the farmers and occupiers who still remain in the countyry. We do most earnestly and in the name of humanity call on Government to take the case of Skibbereen, with its 22,000 paupers, and its bankrupt landlords, farmers and shopkeepers, into immediate consideration, and at once relieve the board from its embarrassment and this destitute from the near prospect of starvation and death. The Government must consider that beyond the credit of a single week's food once respectable house -- Messrs Gould and Co. -- have refused to grant, and that contractors are perfectly justified by the state of things int he neighboring town of Bantry,where all seems in hopeless ruin, in refusing to risk even a shilling's worth of their property on the faith of any board of guardians, be they paid or elected, the officers of the Government, or the representatives of the people."

The Central Relief Committe, through whose exertions so much good was achieved in the years 46-7, have recommenced operations, and in an address to the country, issued this day, they call for assistance to enable them to relieve "the utter destitution of 1849 -- a destitution far surpassing anything this country has yet endured."

The accounts this morning from Clare and Galway are scarcely less afflicting than those from Ballinrobe and Skibbereen.